The University of Latvia (LU) has plans to significantly cut down the number of active faculties, as LETA was told by the university’s rector Indriķis Muižnieks.
Currently LU has a total of 13 faculties covering four branches of science. Among the natural sciences LU offers Biology, Informatics, Physics, Mathematics and Optometry, Geography and Geology, and Chemistry faculties. In the field of Humanitarian Sciences and Arts, the university has Humanitarian sciences, Theology and History, and Philosophy faculties. In the Social sciences field LU offers Business, management and economy, Law, Pedagogy, Psychology and art, and Social Sciences faculties.
In the medicines and health sciences LU offers the Faculty of Medicine.
New faculties may be composed based on the aforementioned scientific directions. Currently it is unknown how many faculties could be formed as a result of this consolidation. However, the number will not be lower than four. The maximum number of faculties could be six or seven.
Muižnieks did say people should not focus on numbers too much, because no decisions have been made so far – officials continue discussions and exchange opinions to find the best possible solutions.
Consolidation of faculties is the decision made by the Council of the University of Latvia that does contradict the university’s development strategy, said Muižnieks, stressing that it will help make the institution’s internal structures simpler and more transparent, as well reduce excessive bureaucracy. This will also help reduce the administrative burden, help make planning easier, as well as provide students with more flexibility, claims the LU rector. These changes, according to the rector, will help make use of the university’s infrastructure more efficient and will offer opportunities to work of even larger academic development projects.
«We can expect many positive accomplishments and benefits – bigger structures are more stable and more capable of overcoming various short crises,» said Muižnieks.
When planning the consolidation of various faculties, LU looked at University of Tartu, where faculties were composed based on various scientific directions. However, LU has no plans to adopt Tartu University’s experience in full, said Muižnieks, adding that both universities have significantly different funding volumes to take into account.
LU rector stresses that the point of the whole process is reaching a mutual understanding of work and forming shared courses and modules. In this context it is important to understand «where we are going and what we are working towards» – do faculties prepare for a specific profession and specific duties in the labour market, or do they operate more widely.
Muižnieks said discussions go on all the time. There are many potential development directions. This is why he would rather not speak in detail about any of them, because the result has yet to come.
Changes may come into force next year. However, by September 2023 LU will need to develop and approve important internal documents – study process development plan and scientific activities development plan.
When asked about the buildings that currently house the faculties, Muižnieks said the university will keep the building located on Rainis Boulevard. However, the future of other buildings is unclear.
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